Generic? Generic?!
This is the woman who has kindly offered to arrange a cinema trip, lunch, film discussion and then a lift to DMark’s barbecue.
Plus she noted my description (male 5’10" grey / black hair+beard+moustache / glasses), then suggested I carry a Spamalot program to conclusively identify myself.
It’s like a Bond movie (well perhaps Austin Powers would be more accurate :eek: )
You guys may be out and about already, but if anyone isn’t, would you mind PMing or e-mailing me info about the location of the BBQ and/or maybe a contact cell number or something? I’m going to fiddle around with my car this afternoon and I might end up coming out. I might be too late to even get directions, though. Ah well, I was about 8 months late to the thread 
Hope you guys have a great time at brunch today…if I didn’t have to work I’d be there, but oh well. 
Just wanted to tell you all that I had a wonderful time! We should definitely do this again soon. My e-mail is in my profile–don’t be strangers!
So who is doing the pictures?
I made it only to the Friday night meet & greet, and to the Saturday barbecue, unfortunately. It was marvelous to meet Dopers in person! Real life Vegas Dope attendees & s.o.'s were all charming, funny, and fascinating, with a wide range of ages and experience, rather like they are online.
Thanks to Dmark & his SO for hosting the Barbecue and for all their hard work (and amazing organizational skills) in pulling this off!
MadPansy, I’ve got some pictures and I believe Scuba Ben has some as well. Mine will be up tomorrow evening, probably, and Ben’s should be up later next week.
Has anyone heard from Rigamarole? He left last night around 11:00 p.m. or so, and I’d just like to be sure he got home safely.
We have pictures as well.
Who do I send them to?
It was so nice seeing and meeting y’all. I’m glad we made the journey south.
And DMark, we thank you for the warm hospitality and congratulate you and your crew for a successful weekend.
Are you going to tell everybody about our Official Dispensation, or are you planning on letting it be a surprise to Ed, Tuba and the rest of the PTB?
This was a blast, as always. Thanks to DMark for hosting and all the Sin City Dopers for their hospitality. Rick’s appetisers were money, and the burgers and pasta salad were superb. Great conversation, crazy Englishmen (I now know more about cricket than I ever needed to know…my bad for asking), and just a bunch of fun people. Nor to mention that Giant Freaking Marine lived up to his handle.
When’s next year’s scheduled for?
Okie-dokie. I know many pics were taken, and would like to see them. I was hoping someone would make a nice little album where the clueless among us (like me) could click and see them all.
I’d volunteer, but I have no idea how to do neat links, and can’t remember my password for whatever site I signed up with (or maybe even which site, for that matter.)
Okay – I’ll volunteer to receive & upload the pics, IF and only if, some patient soul will walk me through the making pretty links part. And volunteer to remember the damn photobucket (?) password.
(I’ve emailed Rigamarole)
We have an Official Dispensation? Shiny! For what?
Yeah, he’s kinda cute that way, ain’t he?
Word to the wise: Pissing off Rico would be bad. Ghostbusters bad. He’s the Huuuuuge Freakin Moderator who makes Giant Freakin Marine look almost normal sized. Not quite but almost. And Mrs. Rico is short, which means he’s at least as wise my Giant.
Without a doubt, the best DopeFest I have ever attended – we had ample time to really get to talk to people and relax, both Friday night and Saturday afternoon. It was great to see everyone mingling and swapping tales and sharing info.
First of all, a huge thank you to MadPansy64, giant freakin’ marine, kurilla and LVgeogeek for their help in organizing all of the events!
I want to send a special thank you to Rick – he is better than any professional caterer/chef/grill cook I could have hired. Great appetizers (will keep that one in the recipe file) and great dessert, along with non-stop grilling by a hot BBQ on a hot afternoon! Rick is the GrillMeister. Thanks also to want2know for bringing appetizers and bacon salt! And thanks to the people who brought all sorts of goodies and drinks and sides and snacks - nobody seemed to leave hungry or thirsty.
It was an honor to have Rico, the mod, and his wife show up to bless the event. Was interesting to hear the mods actually do receive an annual salary of $500,000 per year, plus 8 weeks vacation to be spent at any of Cecil’s private villas around the globe. Sounds like a great dental plan as well. Your SDMB company car (Ferrari) was cool and thank you for awarding us all free lifetime memberships.
But the best part of the weekend was getting to meet so many really nice, cool people from all over the US and yes, glee, even jolly old England. Many of you traveled long and far to get here, and I hope you had a great time both at the LasVegasDopeFest and running around our fair city. Let me know how the brunch turned out.
My SO and I had a great time and look forward to the next LasVegasDopefest in 2008! As soon as we Las Vegas Dopers all get out of rehab, the plans for next year will begin!
I KNEW IT!!!
I wish we could have made this Dopefest - it only would have been about 24 hours straight driving - we’re Canadian, we could have done it. 
Next year we have Ohio pencilled in for our big trip - maybe we can make it back to Vegas for 2009. Sounds like you had a really good one there.
Thanks for the kind words DMark. You went to so much work to put this on, I thought it was the least I could do. If anyone wants to know the recipes I used (like they were complex 
) just ask.
As you know, I met with Rico for a beer after the dopefest. I gotta tell you that suite at the top of the Bellagio is really something. Oh and cruising the strip in the Ferrari is a bit different than doing it in a Volvo. In the Ferrari, the hookers try to pick you up.
You can send them to me via the email in my profile. Between me and Ben we’ll get them posted.
I don’t know about WHEN, but I’ve convinced Mr. K to have the BBQ at our place. Hope nobody objects to friendly, lovable dogs. (Ben, Rigamarole, Glee – my dogs really ARE lovable, right?)
Breakfast at The Palms
Thank you DMark and SO for opening their home to us. We had a great time.
I want to thank everybody too! My sister and I had a wonderful time. It really added to our ‘glitzy’ holiday to meet such friendly and interesting folks. Oh, and the shows were fabulous!
Sorry if I went on about cricket (I don’t really like it myself :eek: ) - but it is a requirement that every English chap be able to explain the rules…
In particular, special gratitude to DMark and Kurilla for their generous hospitality. It is a little intimidating to travel 6000 miles and gamble on meeting ‘Internet friends’, but everything was fine.
DMark showed me video poker and although I won $5.26 (later reduced to $1.26 when my sister wanted to have a go!), I really don’t understand why people play slots. 
The machine is set to keep 10-20% overall, there’s no human contact and little skill. Still Vegas runs on it, so it must have some appeal…
Now playing Texas Hold’em in a Vegas casino is entirely different! Great atmosphere, friendly banter and a real chance to win.
Kurilla, your dogs are great! No barking, just endless tail-wagging and enthusiasm. And your hubbies collection of roleplaying is simply stupendous.
I have also learnt several new words like ‘eggs over easy’ and that in Starbucks ‘tall’ = ‘small’.
I fly home tomorrow with lots of happy memories - THANKS DOPERS!
The key word is “overall”. All it takes is one lucky machine… like the one I hit shortly after we left brunch. $30 profit on a 30 cent bet - not bad, not bad.
Thanks to the LV crew for organizing a great party! Looking forward to next year’s already. 
And the Penny Slots are designed for action, so you can be entertained quite cheaply while sucking down free booze. Then there is the luck factor mentioned above. We cleared a nice little profit on this trip, entirely through penny slots, and had a fun time doing it.
Next year needs to be scheduled now, dammit!
Yep, kurilla, I <o yer dogs (im in ur food eating ur dogs).
Photos! These are from the Dopefest proper and a couple of shots around Las Vegas. Later I’ll upload my 100+ photos from Shark Reef.
Much thanks to all the Las Vegas folks for putting together a wonderful DopeFest. Feel free to come to Gettysdope this fall in return!
After brunch, I had a bad run at the craps table, and at night I had a good run at nickel video slots. My total gambling for the weekend broke even. At Vegas, that’s almost as good as winning the Ferrari!
I wound up seeing Penn & Teller on Sunday night. They did do #1: Audience Participation – we all signed a big envelope before the show, to prove the envelope was genuine in one of their acts. They didn’t do #2: Wood chipper, though. But they made up for it with #3: Gasoline, where Penn and a lovely assistant performed couple’s fire eating.
Ah, well, at least you’re not burning them. Small favors, right?
Too bad about the wood chipper – that was fun.
And for photos, they’ll be posted by Friday, minor upheaval in life at the moment (nothing bad, just time consuming).